Technology & Liberation—Free & 'Freed' Markets to the Left & Right

              Douglas E. French, President of MISES, is a clear and methodical speaker who delivers an important talk, Strategies for Changing Minds Towards Liberty, as to how technology is empowering individuals and subverting Government's monopoly on information.  As POTUS attempts to leverage the FaceBook crowd with rhetoric, his top-down, one-size fits all, anti-entrepreneurship Statism is being challenged by Google, Khan Academy, LINUX, YouTube, WikiPedia and a dozen other ventures that are 'emerging' from bottom-up collaboration. The continued expansion of the Imperial Presidency and a bloated bureaucracy embodied in the IRS, EPA, DEA, DOE, DOA, TSA, CIA—a near endless bloat of regulatory restrictions administered by apparatchicks—can still suppress the budding efflorescence of freedom and reason.
               It goes without saying, this is why Google is such a threat to tyrannies such as China and Iran—information is power.

               Again, great message—one spot troubles me though, the 'Griggs vs. Duke Power Co.' citation, probably based on O'Keefe and Vedder's paper 'Griggs v. Duke Power: Implications for College Credentialing' as to why universities hold a monopoly power of accreditation seems to be a stretch.  Companies can still administer aptitude tests that are job-related—much like the US Navy did to screen us into the nuclear power program—they just can't  be generic screenings.
             I would tend to agree that there's a bubble in college education that's about to be popped by online learning systems like Khan Academy, but there will always be an important institutional niche for universities as locations where mentor-apprentice relationships are developed in complex fields—medicine, nuclear physics, electronics &c.—careers that truly require the intense theoretical and practical devotion.

             Roderick T. Long makes some interesting points in his MISES talk on How to Reach the Left (Strategies for Changing Minds Towards Liberty.  He readily admits that the aristocratic Left, the Teddy Kennedy's and Barack Obama's, are a lost cause—but there is an anti-privilege Left that can be in alignment with Libertarian ideas.
             The core point is that the Left and Right mistake the existing economic order as a result of free market operation when in fact it is due to cronyism, favouritism, regulation, subsidies, direct and indirect grants and monopoly protection (including in the labour market the alliance between government and unions.)  
              In other words, the military-industrial-university-labour complex (an extension of President Eisenhower's military-industrial linkage) that exists today is not the 'freed' market—it is the result of monopoly power gained through access to government regulations that exclude competition to allow conglomerates and corporations that span the country and the globe.  E.g., ObamaCare™ is a boon not for American health, but for Health Maintenance Organisations, the American Medical Association, and is especially sweet for Insurance Companies!
               Liberals and Conservatives are equally interventionist and differ mainly in the means, not the desire to manipulate and control through Government edict—not only at home, but abroad (it is no small coincidence that Bush and Obama are spendthrifts and activists domestically and internationally.)  It is time to create a 'freed' market that will function outside of the reins of a few privileged oligarchs. 

Other People's $$—OK—Give My Grades to Someone Who Hasn't Earned Them, Are You Crazy?

      The classic experiment in working Communism  was conducted with the same results as every other time I've heard of it being done when 'The College Republicans at the University of California-Merced ask(ed) fellow students, who support raising taxes on the rich, if they would be willing to redistribute their GPAs. They don’t think it’s a good idea because they earned their grades.' (Students not eager to redistribute GPA score)
      The unsurprising results—I merit my grades, why should someone who didn't work for theirs get mine?  But someone else's money—well, the system's not fair, it's OK to take it from them and give it to someone else who is needy.  Everyone loves a free-ride!! 
       An entitlement mentality will impoverish us all.  How distinct this faux largesse to the older American tradition of charity and philanthropy—individuals earned their money and distributed it as they saw fit—museums, endowments, universities, foundations, charities, parks, monuments &c.  Now it's done through forceful Government intervention to maintain a Nanny State in which most are endowed and few need to innovate and struggle.  A recipe for failure.

Alkaia & Vital — Padre Island, Texas

Mexico’s Drug War Body Count — America's Unquenchable Thirst for Drugs

          The fact that 'More than 37,000 people have perished in the violence since President Felipe Calderon sent the military after the drug cartels in December 2006. Despite the growing tally of victims, Calderon insists on staying the course with a tenacity worthy of George W. Bush and his misguided crusade in Iraq' alone would make reading 'Mexico’s Drug War Body Count Mounts | The National Interest Blog' a sad affair—these are civilians not military forces with the means to defend themselves!!

        Our failure to forget that Prohibition's legacy was violence and corruption makes this tragedy even more despairing—it's purely and simply a waste of resources and lives driven by our insatiable appetite for drugs and our hypocrisy.
         The latest mass grave is just a two hour drive from here—we are fools to believe this level of chaos can be contained by a border wall—that the destruction of Mexico, the subversion of its fragile economy and society, will not leave a deep wound that will impact our country.
          The so-called 'War on Drugs' has already poured precious American resources into an endless sinkhole with no measurable results (look at the DEA 'statistics' & have a good laugh at their lack of effectiveness, which always calls for more resources as a remedy), shifted law-enforcement into SWAT teams that invade American homes, and diverted police efforts from investigating and solving crime to the more glamorous 'War on Drugs'.  

Alkaia, Vital & Riot—Romping in the Shallows

Deficit Demagoguery—POTUS Tries to Beat Standard & Poor's

        Take a brief look at the charts presented in 'What Forced President Obama to the Deficit Cutting Table?'—at a glimpse you can see the different approaches to the deficit issue. There's a big difference between the President's 'tax them until they don't bleed any more' and the other options, none of them goes far enough.
          The timing of the President's rhetoric (it can hardly be called a plan yet), tardy as it was, could cynically be looked as arriving just before Standard & Poor's devaluation of America's spendthrift ways.   S&P's devaluated the Bush-Obama administration of American finances, but inevitably Bush-Obama are devaluing our assets to PØØR—it's not just that America's worsening credit rating will result in losing the US dollar's privileged position as the world's currency, cause increased borrowing interest rates to pay off ballooning debt payments, and lead to flight of investment funds from American enterprises to other countries; but the increased taxes and rising inflation will inevitable pinch the budget of ordinary Americans (especially since the Government does not acknowledge that an inflationary spiral is well under-way.)
           As Daniel Hannan puts it—'‎'You cannot spend your way out of a recession; you cannot borrow your way out of debt' ... 'Everyone can see that you are the devalued [President] of a devalued Government!'
          Also refer to Robert P. Murphy's 'Uncle Sam: Busted' article—the train wreck is not being adequately addressed by either the Left of the Right.

Stock Dog & Herding in the Hill Country

        The Texas Hill Country Stock Dog Association announces 'the return of our annual Member’s Clinic May 7-8, 2011.   Ron Burkey has agreed to be our clinician again this year.  The clinic is open to all members of any handler level as well as any dog breed.  Don’t sleep on this opportunity work with a wonderful handler and clinician, slots will fill up fast!  To reserve your spot, please contact Richard Mueller at rbmueller@gmail.com'  

         At $25 per day for THCSDA members, the price is right!!

Alkaia as a Puppy—Fetching a Half-Filled Water Bottle From the Ocean

Breed All About It - Bouvier des Flandres

A short synopsis of the Bouvier des Flanders on YouTube. ;-)

Alkaia as a Puppy—No Sun Burnt Noses Here

Boy, 12, Busted Over Spilled Milk Incident | The Smoking Gun

The factory school system at work—browse the reader comments & weep or cry, depending on your polarity in interpreting events. For me, spilt milk and the violent response of adults to a child's refusal to not clean it up is not indicative of a healthy educational environment, but more of the coercive mentality of a gaol. 

Eden is that old-fashioned House—Emily Dickinson

Eden is that old-fashioned House

We dwell in every day

Without suspecting our abode

Until we drive away.

How fair on looking back,

the Day We sauntered from the Door—

Unconscious our returning,

But discover it no more.

Doggie Boots—Hound in the Boots

        Texas briars and stickers are driving me to purchase boots for Alkaia—no Puss in the Boots here, just a Hound in the Boots. Now to size what were once her tiny little paws using the sizing guide provided by Dog Boots Active. In this picture her paw is full of horse manure after romping around with the other dogs at Horses on the Beach on Padre Island.  She lay contentedly in the truck for the ride home and half-way there regurgitated her fill of already horse-digested hay!

Alkaia as a Puppy—Where There's Manure, There Must Be a Horsie

Alkaia Running Along Tidal Flats

Beware of the Man with the Sword

          The FED chairman and Treasury Secretary, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner, are supposedly impartial technical specialists, but have of late become apparatchiks in the best style of former high level Communist party experts of the now defunct U.S.S.R.—the parallel is disturbing given the nature of our unprecedented spending spree and its potential disastrous consequences.  That two individuals, as pointed out by Daniel J. Mitchell in his Why are Geithner and Bernanke Trying to Panic Financial Markets with Debt Limit Demagoguery?, that are supposedly beyond politics, are taking such a biased and partisan stand as to declare that not increasing the debt limit will cause financial meltdown is irresponsible and not conducive to a rational debate on balancing our out of control budgetary process.

Alkaia as Puppy with Light Line

Alkaia & Texas Wildflowers

Alkaia is Antilyssic—¡Straight for the Water!

Alkaia, Vital & Riot Romping in Shoreline Flats

Cado Running a Horse to the Corral for the Evening

American Mavericks—a great place to listen to musical creativity

          A classic website with some of the most interesting and innovative music likely to be encountered in America. ;-)

Ayn Rand—You Can Have it Any Way You Want, as Long as it's My Way

      Joy Pullman's review of the movie version of Ayn Rand's Fountainhaid seems to be a well-balanced criticism of how orthodoxy kills freedom—to the point where the new movie seemed leaden to her.  One of her observations is that Rand was a believer in solipsism, which has logical contradictions involved in believing in only one's self and trying to live within a social contract, and this conflict lies at the heart of the current tension between duties and rights.  For Americans, the explicit enumeration of rights was a necessity under King George III, duties were implicit, but now in an entitlement-minded society perhaps responsibilities need clarification—what does being a citizen mean?


      Do we need to go as far as stopping the automatic granting of citizenship to anyone born on American territory?  Should citizenship be restricted to only those that have served the Nation, as in Heinlein's Starship Troopers?  The fact that everyone can suck on an obese Nanny State's tit means that someone, somewhere has to feed the Beast as well—that's the current battlefield—at least until fat momma has to go on dialysis due to kidney failure.


       In any case, let's see what the movie actually feels like when viewed.

Ai WeiWei—an inspiration for all ages and a criminal in China! :-((

This is a much more graphically realistic image of the Chinese government's crackdown on Ai WeiWei than what I've come across, compare the Telegraph's rather matter-of fact photo: [www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8432272/China-breaks-silence-on-Ai-Weiweis-detention.html}


If art is living truth, ala Socrates or Moore or Galileo, then this man is a living work of art—a treasure for all ages and an inspiration for all those who believe in the divine spark of each individual's soul.  

From $Billions & $Trillions to an average taxpayer's $Thousands

'... consider a hypothetical Philadelphia area resident who is 37 years old (the median age in the metropolitan region in 2009), has a college degree, and earns $45,565 annually (the area's average per-capita income that year). According to our calculations, based on current tax rates and a projected life span of 80 years, that person will pay more than $420,000 in taxes to finance federal government spending over the rest of his or her lifetime. If invested over the next 43 years, that money could be worth much more than $1 million.

Of our hypothetical worker's $420,000 in taxes,

—$58,658 will pay interest on the federal debt

—$22,972 for administrative costs and personnel benefits

—$53,146 to finance national defense

—$52,238 for Medicaid

—$32,746 for welfare

—$84,272 for Medicare

—$85,637 for Social Security.' [Grasping budget's billions and trillions - Page 2 - Philly.com]

Well I've Already Admitted Lunacy, but Never Idiocy

‎        The Left & the Right throw out the usual ad hominim attacks—in this example, supporters of federal control over the education agenda label anyone not in favor as crazy.  


       'How convenient! Rather than dealing with the absence of education in Article I, Section 8, which lays out the federal government’s specific powers, you just dismiss as nuts those who think the Feds should be bound by the document through which their powers come.' Neal McCluskey.

p.s. If you don't think your tax dollars are being wasted, then take a look at Neal's Figure 2, Inflation-Adjusted Federal K-12 Spending per Pupil and Achievement of 17-Year-Olds, % Change Since 1970. :-((

Video Games—from lack of empathy to killing

‎"We might prefer to see children reading or getting exercise and interacting with the real world by playing outside, but video games are definitely preferable to most television. But video games can also be superb at teaching violence—violence packaged in the same format that has more than quadrupled the firing rate of modern soldiers." LCOL Dave Grossman, 'On Killing', 315.

Why the Farm is not a Good Metaphor for the School

The metaphor of SCHOOL is a FACTORY or SCHOOL is a FARM  in which standard products are manufactured or harvested; and that EDUCATION is a MEAL which is CONSUMED or PREPARED are part and parcel of the 19th century (19C) Zeitgeist.  These ideas had currency and led to the 19C factory school model—cookie cutter students produced by standard methods using standard curricula (n.b. this was not usually the case in Prussia!  Vide-Henry Barnard's reports on foreign education available through Google Books.)  Mr. French seems to have fallen into these metaphoric fallacies.


We do agree that a government monopoly in education, like most monopolies is not often productive of the variety a modern economy requires, and in fact can be a dangerous machine, not only for training or education, but for indoctrination (especially given the 19th century factory school model currently being used in most schools.)


Nevertheless Education is the ability to self-learn; or, in other words, the art of inducing and producing critical thinking in an individual.  It is a lifetime endeavor and can have both formal and informal periods. {Vide—J. Zull, 'The Art of Changing the Brain'}


Mr. French mentions Luke Nosek's "20 under 20"—watch Salman Khan explaining the idea of self-learning in this video [http://youtu.be/gM95HHI4gLk], he'll discuss the 20/20 vision as well. Khan Academy videos and interactive exercises allow Palo Alto schools to flip the school day—kids watch lectures at home and do exercises in school.  Additionally, as you'll see, there is 'no child left behind'—there are 5th graders doing calculus while others are working on 4th grade material—advancement is purely on mastery not age cohort.


Lastly, Andrew Warwick in 'Masters of Theory' makes a strong case for the importance of mentorship in developing professional competence in Mathematical Physics—others have argued similarly to explain why certain universities developed expertise and specialized in certain fields, e.g. German 19th century organic chemistry [J.B. Morrell's works refer]—the point being that personal example and motivation have an important place in training and education, after all, we are emotional creatures not computer programs.  The most important aptitude in scientific endeavours, which curtails messianic closure, is technical and professional competence.

Don't pay for the EU pet travel forms (EU Form 998)

         Travelling throughout Europe with your pet is relatively easy and so is taking your pet there and back, if you figure out the paperwork, which is not necessarily a trivial undertaking to the uninitiated.  The basis is the EU Form 998 which is available at the official European Commission's website [EUROPA > European Commission > DG Health and Consumers > Overview > Animal Health and Welfare], but a simple Google search for EU form 998 doesn't get you there without at first encountering all the hucksters that want you to pay for the free form.


         The EC's website is not to be lauded for facility of access though, or at least its banner—
      does not lead one to believe that there's going to be something in there for the pet lover and not the pet connoisseur (they do eat puppies in Korea after all!)


          In any case under the tab labelled 'Movement of Pets (Dogs, Cats and Ferrets)—Non-Commercial Movement from Third Countries' you will find all the documentation and regulations for pet travel in Europe that your veterinarian will need.

Where do all the knuckle-heads come from?

    Ludwig von Mises opined that the progeny of capitalists become the greatest opponents of the system!  'The cousins derive their revenues from the firm or corporation. But they are foreign to business life and know nothing about the problems an entrepreneur has to face. They have been brought up in fashionable boarding schools and colleges, whose atmosphere was filled by a haughty contempt for banausic money-making. Some of them pass their time in nightclubs and other places of amusement, bet and gamble, feast and revel, and indulge in expensive debauchery. Others amateurishly busy themselves with painting, writing, or other arts. Thus, most of them are idle and useless people.'


     So, in order to redress  the wrong of not having inherited the reins of the corporation, they drift into politics and seize the reins of the State—a confiscatory monopoly with the exclusive right to use power over its citizens and to wage war.  Is it any wonder that the progressive agenda has resulted in so many wars?—War Against Poverty, War Against Drugs, War Against Ghadaffi, War Against Sadam Hussein, ...  And that the hawks are such grandiose mediocrities like Sir Edward Kennedy ... 

Is staging Fabianne Cherisma's corpse a laudable image?

The next time you feel moral outrage at an image or a news report, you might think about venting a bit of that anger at the news 'provider' or 'writer' or 'photographer'.  The news media is an industry, a business, with an aim to provoke a reaction, and garner profit—i.e. by presenting a view that will invoke emotions.  


The nature of news 'gathering and presentation' in unstable and violent areas, of necessity, often implies the need for personal courage and risk by reporters—at least that's my underlying assumption. And of course, there's underlying 'bias' depending on organisational politics, the pose or frame or angle selected to tell the story or present the image, which does not of necessity imply moral turpitude.


But there's a line of transgression when exploitation is premeditated to such a degree, as in the image in this article of reporters squatting like vultures around Fabianne Cherisma's corpse, that the lie of a random image becomes a violation of decency and humanity. 


I'm currently so enraged that I'm of opinion that the fabrication of 'a scene encountered in a chaotic land by a reporter seeking to expose crimes' is such a falsification as to  make the messenger worthy of having her tongue pulled out or his eyes seared—at least their camera trigger finger lopped off.

Claude Frédéric Bastiat— the Broken Window Fallacy

The Broken Window Fallacy—that war, tornadoes, tsunamis, governments create wealth by employing people to repair damage, was countered by Bastiat's showing the alternative: keeping what you currently have and using the money to make something else.  This collection has Bastiat's major works, you can also go to Google Books and view them for free since the English translations were all done in the 19th century and the copyright has expired. ;-)

Clockwork and guesswork—the predictable and the untractable

'Isaac Newton was possibly the most brilliant mind ever. But when it came to the financial bubble of his day, the South Sea Company bubble of 1720, he displayed Ed Bottum’s rule. He was an early investor in South Sea stock, doubled his money, and sold out. The stock went on up, and Newton bought back in, only to suffer large losses when the bubble collapsed. He wrote disgustedly, “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”'

Perhaps Science is finding a new force, but Society is losing its old force

Scientists believe there's a possibility that a new particle or force not seen before might make sense out of discrepant data.  Ironically, the discrepancy of trillions in the national budget also require some theoretical speculation, yet that seems to be the furthest thought on Bernanke's or the President's mind.  The Keynesian paradigm remains in force—spend, spend, spend and all will be OK.

As the Herd Trundles on Over the Cliff

What an obverse (not to say perverse) interpretation of events: a contrarian would say that Democrats & Republicans are marching the country lemming-like over the cliff!! NPR is so embedded in the spending culture and is so afraid of existing in a competitive environment that it doesn't even see its unconstitutional bias when it comes to illegal spending and the necessity to curb it. :-(

Why does GNP include Government Spending as Wealth?

When economists talk about 'expanding the pie' they mean creation of wealth through innovation, creativity, cooperation and competition in the marketplace. When politicians talk about 'expanding the pie' they mean profligate spending of taxpayer created wealth through redistribution programs. One version creates and enriches, the other spends and impoverishes.  

Fahrenheit 451—ijtihad and jihad

Lars Vilks makes explicitly and implicitly some crucial points—the act of individuals burning ‘scriptures’ (compilations of myths) is not the same as the imposition of those scriptures on individuals. Sharia is government, judicial and religious authority all rolled up into one—just like the Torah for the Jews and the New Testament for the Catholic Church were at one time—but in the end, all who live by a book, not their hearts and minds, will end up being skewered and burnt as heretics by the strictures of their own book.

The view that Western culture can understand, but not reject Islam or Hinduism or Cannibalism—that all cultures are equally valid—is a naïve and dangerous faith: why not bring back Stalinism or Nazism as well? For 1,000 years, Sharia has banned ijtihad (mental struggle—the complement of jihad—physical struggle) and created a stagnant and repressive culture (Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451′ with its book burning fire-men comes to mind).

The West rejected, starting with the Rennaissance (recall Pico della Mirandola’s ‘Oration on the Dignity of Man’), a life based on myth or superstition and adopted a culture of dissent and discussion in which individual choice and responsibility were enshrined—thank you for continuing to keep that tradition alive.

Neither goose or gander or gosling or egg want the mandate

'Now we learn that even one of the law’s staunchest supporters and apparent co-author is running from the law. Representative Anthony Weiner, a Democrat who proclaimed last September that he “wrote the bill, the bill and I are one,” is now looking for ways to get his hometown of New York City out from under the new mandates. He joins a burgeoning number of unions and businesses who have already sought waivers from the law.' Diane Cohen

BUSH = OBAMA = Spend & Burn BUBBAS !! :-(

'In fiscal year 2001, which ended in September 2001 but was mostly set in place before President Bush took office, the federal government spent $1,863 billion. After seven years of Bush and a Republican Congress, spending was more than a trillion dollars higher—$2,983 billion in FY2008. Then the financial crisis, TARP, the stimulus, and the omnibus spending bill came along, and FY2011 spending is estimated at $3,819 billion—$836 billion more than just three years earlier, and $1,956 billion more than when Bush took office a decade ago.' David Boaz

Nero fiddles as the Capitol ignites in flames

'I'm mystified by Maya's [MacGuineas] reference to an "opening bid" by the White House. What on earth is she talking about? Obama punted in his budget and didn't even endorse the findings of his own Fiscal Commission.' Daniel J. Mitchell

Tom Mullen's observations on Government action = Force-full action

“Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their powers; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.” Thomas Jefferson

Milt Rosenberg's interview with Dr. Bart Ehman to discuss his new book, FORGED

The Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are

Forgeries, false attribution, fabrication and falsification—it's all there. Great discussion on comparative religious studies, biblical archeology, religious history, heresies, &c. &c. ;-)

'Persuasion' archives at Mises.Org

'In a speech to the U.S. Senate on March 14, 1834, Henry Clay said, "The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites tbe public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments."'

The Online Learning Revolution

Salman Khan with Google's backing is changing the way that kids learn math, biology, chemistry ... In fact, some schools using his system have actually 'flipped' their schedules—lectures are done at home and homework is done in schools where the teacher can help students out.

How about a 5th grader who asks the teacher how to use the chain rule in Calculus with the teacher replying that it's been a long-time, but they could sit down & figure it out together?

Individualised progress reports, &c &c ... ;-)

So, TV or video games—or both?

'“Evolved,” you ask? Oh, yes. Here is her argument: Since the introduction of World of Warcraft, its players have invested a collective 5.93 million years in making the stockholders of Activision Blizzard very happy. And 5.93 million years is a decent approximation of the length of time that has elapsed since the first hominid stood erect. So, you see? Of course, by that logic, the high school class of 1962, which has spent a collective 16.3 million years sleeping since graduation, are even more evolved. We should probably all have those big bulbous, hairless heads that science fiction has so often predicted. (Some of us have at least mastered the hairless part.)

“Reality is broken” is her premise, and I have no doubt that typical gamers would agree. There’s no arguing with the premise, for the simple reason that it is meaningless, except perhaps as a way of avoiding the fact that reality is hard. But it has a certain buzz value, and it got this PhD holder in “performance studies” her 20 minutes onstage at TED, where every idea is a Big Idea.' Robert McHenry

This observation that millions of hours are being wasted on video games, also applies as well to the time spent in front of a TV. Curiously, in the military we have used both techniques to increase the performance of our sailors and soldiers, and there are video games that are challenging and complex scenarios (simCity, simAnt ... series or Civilization come to mind), but like all things in life—too much of a 'good' thing can become an evil.

Tax & Tax until the Turnip bleeds!

“Nor should the argument seem strange that taxation may be so high as to defeat its object, and that, given sufficient time to gather the fruits, a reduction of taxation will run a better chance than an increase of balancing the budget. For to take the opposite view today is to resemble a manufacturer who, running at a loss, decides to raise his price, and when his declining sales increase the loss, wrapping himself in the rectitude of plain arithmetic, decides that prudence requires him to raise the price still more—and who, when at last his account is balanced with nought on both sides, is still found righteously declaring that it would have been the act of a gambler to reduce the price when you were already making a loss.” 1933 Essay: The Means to Prosperity, section I: The nature of the problem, p338, The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Macmillan Cambridge University Press, 1972

[Cf. Daniel J. Mitchell's post: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/a-victory-for-the-laffer-curve-a-defeat-for-englands-economy]

Ayn Rand's 'Fountainhead' in a 9 minute video

How to pay for the USG's 2011 budget by seizing all the wealth from greedy corporations, fat cats and sports starts (also those 'useless Hollywood idiots'). ;-)

If Women Ruled There Would Be Peace

It has been said that if women ruled there would be more peace in the world, but events seem to defy that innocent prediction:

'In the end, the Valkyries got their war. Clinton's advice, along with that of Samantha Power and Susan Rice, who have all loudly called for U.S. military intervention in the past, convinced President Obama to override Gates and Mullen's objections, and to launch what Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman aptly characterized yesterday as "just the most muddled definition of an operation probably in U.S. military history."' [Christopher Preble, 'Obama's Power Problem, and Ours', Cato at Liberty, 01.04.2011]

For those of you that are sucking down Iodine pills

Putting things into perspective can help since natural causes of radiation & radioactivity are part & parcel of living on a fragment of an exploded star.

Education = Self + Learning

How about a 'revolution' that happens one child at a time to unfold each individual's potential—now that would be something—Salman Khan through his free online Khan Academy videos reaches 2,000,000 individual learners per month!

Technology innovations and reductions in cost are converging to personalise learning. For example—converting an eBook reader into a low-cost web browser. This can be done by 'rooting' the reader, a process that shifts the machine to Google's Android operating system as demonstrated on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUoHALWvPts&feature=player_embedded). Notably, YouTube is owned by Google, and Salman Khan's Khan Academy is being sustained by Google—these Nerds are gonna change the world!!

It's interesting to observed that Bill Gates is still 'rooted' to the old scheme of 'fixing schools' and donating billions to the 'cause'. But costs matter: DC public schools—$28,000/pupil/year failures; private schools—$7,000/pupil/year with better results; Khan Academy—internet access + reader (100's of dollars/pupil/year) with personalised results.

So, after you 'root' your E-reader you have a cheap iPad which permits access to Khan Academy educational videos, which means even poor kids will have access to world class instruction and learning !! ;-)

p.s. MIT posts all its lectures online.

Beethoven's Nightshirt

DNA tested, OK, but the reconstituted 'Nightshirt' Sonata sounds a lot like the Arietta from Sonata 32, Op. 111 ... ;-)

Liszt Competition Streaming to You

The schedule for the upcoming Liszt competition which will be streamed live. ;-)

Devil's may lie

'Saints may always tell the truth, but for mortals living means lying. We lie to protect our privacy (“No, I don’t live around here”); to avoid hurt feelings (“Friday is my study night”); to make others feel better (“Gee you’ve gotten skinny”); to avoid recriminations (“I only lost $10 at poker”); to prevent grief (“The doc says you’re getting better”); to main- tain domestic tranquility (“She’s just a friend”); to avoid social stigma (“I just haven’t met the right woman”); for career advancement (“I’m sooo lucky to have a smart boss like you”); to avoid being lonely (“I love opera”); to eliminate a rival (“He has a boyfriend”); to achieve an objective (“But I love you so much”); to defeat an objective (“I’m allergic to latex”); to make an exit (“It’s not you, it’s me”); to delay the inevitable (“The check is in the mail”); to communicate dis- pleasure (“There’s nothing wrong”); to get someone off your back (“I’ll call you about lunch”); to escape a nudnik (“My mother’s on the other line”); to namedrop (“We go way back”); to set up a surprise party (“I need help moving the piano”); to buy time (“I’m on my way”); to keep up appear- ances (“We’re not talking divorce”); to avoid taking out the trash (“My back hurts”); to duck an obligation (“I’ve got a headache”); to maintain a public image (“I go to church every Sunday”); to make a point (“Ich bin ein Berliner”); to save face (“I had too much to drink”); to humor (“Correct as usual, King Friday”); to avoid embarrassment (“That wasn’t me”); to curry favor (“I’ve read all your books”); to get a clerkship (“You’re the greatest living jurist”); to save a dollar (“I gave at the office”); or to maintain innocence (“There are eight tiny reindeer on the rooftop”).

And we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk, as reflected by the popularity of plastic surgery, elevator shoes, wood veneer paneling, cubic zirconia, toupees, artificial turf and cross-dressing. Last year, Americans spent $40 billion on cosmetics—an industry devoted almost entirely to helping people deceive each other about their appearance. It doesn’t matter whether we think that such lies are despicable or cause more harm than good. An important aspect of personal autonomy is the right to shape one’s public and private persona by choosing when to tell the truth about oneself, when to conceal and when to deceive. Of course, lies are often disbelieved or discovered, and that too is part of the pull and tug of social intercourse. But it’s critical to leave such interactions in private hands, so that we can make choices about who we are. How can you develop a reputation as a straight shooter if lying is not an option?' Judge Alex Kazinski, 9th District

Thanks to Tim Lynch from CATO for directing me to this ruling (http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/false-statements-free-speech-and-sniper-fire/)

Homegrown Incompetents

In case you were wondering where in the world we find the theoreticians that lead us into war, depression and failure: Yale, Harvard, Chicago ... Look no further than those intellectual hotbeds of Utopian thinking—our law schools. The Bubba network is self-righteous and self-perpetuating, and because they do not suffer from the effects of their policies, having ensured they are well-taken care of, the craziness will continue ad nauseum—or until the country is bankrupt.

The New International

"AT MY DIRECTION" : 'It is not just that this president, like others before him, ignored Article I of the Constitution. Nor is this president the first to shun moral complexity in favor of a Manichean outlook. President Obama is the first, however, to assert that his broad powers to initiate war should be limited primarily by people who are outside the American social compact.' (John Samples)

Not only does POTUS not read Bills before he signs them, not care about the Constitution, but he's willing to turn the whole mess over to an International Community that certainly will never read either.

A bit over the top—but there's some truth in the matter: don't pick fights you can't win.

"These people will be serving the public only in the sense that the bull will be serving the cow." Robert Higgs.

The Soviet Union failed with its 5 year plans, so we adopted the same system!

Jeff A. Tucker's piece on the USG's 'morass of incompetence and quagmire of subjectivism' is a welcome statement showing how our regulatory system is out of control. In a sense, because it is so out of control and tries to do everything for everyone it can be 'proven' to work for everyone—or conversely to protect no one from anything. Unread by legislators, but created, expanded and enforced by bureaucrats it is a daunting obstacle to progress. Even our esteemed Congressmen recognise the problem:

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill’ … What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” – John Conyers, July 27, 2009

— & yet Rep. Conyers voted for the 2,700 page Health Care Bill and 2,300 page Banking Regulation Bill!!! Which are now being further expanded into a regulatory scheme. :-(
But, at this point complaining is a moot point, after all, what's 5,000 unread pages to a 350,000 page unread thicket of contradictions and restrictions? :-((

In case I decide to photograph again

Mo' Doggie—or Modoggies of controversy.

For those dog lovers that are looking for more than a little bite.

Did the Nobel Committee regain its sanity?

Congratulations Lars!! I was getting to think that the Nobel Committee could only recognise politically-correct establishment 'prophets' like Al Gore or Barack Obama, and had lost all its moral authority in not supporting iconoclasts. Again, my deepest appreciation for your work, and congratulations, mani. ;-)